Giving ‘Thanks for Your Business’

In a former life in this industry, I used to conduct customer satisfaction surveys for printers with their customers. These surveys were conducted by phone or in person, which allowed me to collect more nuanced information.

Instead of contacting all of a printer’s clients, I often focused my efforts on gathering in-depth feedback from the printer’s top accounts—usually the top 25 customers. I would often start interviews by mentioning to the print buyers that their company was one of the printer’s top accounts and represented a significant portion of the printer’s business.

Frequently the print buyers were surprised to learn this. The sales representative and management team never thought to mention to the client how important their business was. Of course once the buyers learned they were a “big fish” they felt more appreciated. Interestingly, I also discovered that they felt more connected to the printer and responsible for the printer’s business.

So the question is…Do your top customers know their contribution to your company? When was the last time you thanked your top customers? This Thanksgiving might be a good time to do so.

(Do you have a suggestion for how to give thanks to customers. Please post your Comment below.)

I agree completely. I have also found it very productive to specifically thank customers who provide content in the appropriate formats, resolutions, etc., to ease the printing job. Not only do they seem to appreciate praise for their "technical competence", it reinforces their desire to "do it right".

http://steve steve

I think this might be a 2-edge sword – some clients like to use that type of info as muscle to negotiate lower prices; in fact that is the definite case with my company’s largest client. Plus, I prefer to have ALL of my customers know that they are extremely important to me.

Jackson Smith

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